"Did not make an effort to clean it up": Coco Gauff's junior coach says future coaches took eye off her forehand issue

Coco Gauff is one of the best players in the world but there are certain technical issues in her game that can either benefit her or blight her and the latter is certainly the forehand as it can fire off unforced errors. But her former coach as a junior said it was an issue that was deserted after she left his tutelege.

Sly Large coached Gauff as a junior and said that when she went from him to Patrick Mouratoglou and other such coaches, it wasn't seen as an issue as she was the top junior and now she is a top female player, it is brought into the spotlight but could've been ironed out sooner in his view.

“What happened somewhere along the line, between 13 and when she went to [Patrick] Mouratoglou, she started developing a little hitch in her forehand,” he said.

“My only guess is, I didn’t see her for a couple of years, my concept is that they must have taken their eye off of her forehand.

Read also

Coco Gauff dumped out at Qatar Open as Marta Kostyuk opens up draw in Doha

“For four years we didn’t take our eyes off of the forehand, it was always every day a work in progress.

“The forehand was never a problem I can tell you that 100%, Gerard [Loglo] will tell you the same thing, her dad will tell you the same thing too.

“What I’m sure of, is she became number one junior in the world at 13 years old, so everybody must’ve thought everything was fine, nobody was keeping an eye on everything, making sure what got her to number one spot, kept that going.

“I saw [the hitch in her forehand] when she was 15/16 years old, but what I’m surprised about, even when the new coaches saw it, they did not make an effort to clean it up because she was winning, still number one in the world [in her age group].”

“The most disappointing part is listening to a couple of her coaches, especially Brad Gilbert, who I think is a very good coach,” he continued.

“He actually said they weren’t going to change anything in the forehand.

“I’m like what! That was Cori’s strong point growing up.

“If they just spent a couple of months making the tweak, it’s what makes the men so good, [Roger] Federer, [Novak] Djokovic, [Rafael] Nadal, they kept improving when they were growing, it’s amazing, they kept improving in their 30s.”

Subscribe to our Newsletter

Unlock your ultimate tennis experience—subscribe today for exclusive access to top stories.

Subscribe